TESTIMONY OF

Thomas F. Overacker
Executive Director
Cargo and Conveyance Security
U.S. Customs and Border Protection

BEFORE

U.S. Senate
Committee on Finance

ON“Part 1: Oversight of the Administration’s Effort to Protect the Integrity of Our Nation’s Medical
Supply Chain”

July 28, 2020
Washington, DCChairman Grassley, Ranking Member Wyden, and Members of the Committee, it is my honor toappear before you today to discuss what U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is doing toensure the integrity of medical supply chains and to facilitate the importation of vital medical
supplies to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
The global scale of this pandemic has required a comprehensive response. CBP serves
steadfastly on the frontlines, implementing and supporting the U.S. response, effectively
managing travel and trade, and mitigating risk. Our efforts to expedite the import of legitimatecargo like medical supplies and protective equipment while also preventing the unlawful importof counterfeit, mislabeled, or unsafe products have become increasingly important during thispandemic. Expediting legitimate trade while protecting Americans from dangerous products areparallel and crucial efforts, and CBP has stepped up to the challenge of balancing them in orderto protect American health and safety.
CBP acknowledges that a successful U.S. response demands strong partnerships with othergovernment agencies, private-sector stakeholders, medical organizations, and our internationalcounterparts. CBP has prioritized communication with all parties involved in the global medical
supply chain. We are working with agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) andthe Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); importers, brokers, and carriers; state andlocal health agencies; medical organizations; and other stakeholders to ensure critical medical
supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) reach their intended destinations for the battle
against COVID-19 here in the United States.
During fiscal year (FY) 2019, CBP processed 35.5 million entries valued at over $2.7 trillion andmore than 28.7 million imported cargo containers at U.S. ports of entry (POEs). Over the last six
months and as a direct result of the global pandemic, CBP has seen a 12 percent decline inoverall volume and a 13 percent decline in the value of imports when compared to the same
period for 2019. These declines reached their peak in May when the volume and value of imports
were 26 percent and 27 percent lower, respectively, than in May of last year
While the U.S. is working with Canada, Mexico, and other international partners to implementcertain border restrictions for non-essential travel, U.S. borders remain open for commerce, and
CBP continues to facilitate legitimate commercial trade at POEs nationwide.
Facilitating Critical Medical Supplies
As the pandemic has evolved within the United States, demand for PPE, COVID-19 test kits,
ventilators, and other medical supplies has increased. CBP has witnessed an unprecedented surge
in imports of these medical products, in particular masks and gloves. In April alone, importquantities of medical commodities increased by 227 percent. The number of new actors in the
supply chain has also dramatically increased. For example, while Malaysia remains the largest
source country for surgical and medical gloves, the number of sellers of these products has
increased by 128 percent. Similarly, while China remains the largest source country for masks,
including N95 respirators, the number of consignees acquiring masks has increased by 160
percent.

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The clearance process for medical products is complex; most medical devices and PPE are
regulated commodities, and therefore must meet FDA or Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) standards for safety and efficacy. CBP regularly receives guidance from and shares datawith other federal agencies, including FDA and EPA, to ensure imported products meet thesestringent requirements. CBP’s existing partnerships with these federal agencies became evenmore critical as the number of imports grew in response to COVID-19, and particularly as new
suppliers and buyers began importing these products into the United States.
COVID-19 Cargo Resolution TeamWith the significant growth in medical supply and PPE import volume, CBP leadership
recognized the need for a centralized response team that could leverage the agency’s expertise torespond to requests in real time. At the end of March, CBP created the COVID-19 Cargo
Resolution Team (CCRT), composed of a network of subject matter experts from across theagency. The CCRT is managed by CBP’s Pharmaceuticals, Health, and Chemicals Center of
Excellence and Expertise, one of ten industry-aligned centers designed to focus CBP’s tradeexpertise and develop relationships with agencies, importers, and other stakeholders in specificindustries. The Pharmaceuticals Center, with its longstanding expertise in the medical and healthproducts industry, was well-positioned to manage the CBP response to this unprecedented strain
on the global medical supply chain.
The CCRT has fulfilled a range of mission needs: triaging incoming requests from importers andcustomers; coordinating with federal, state, and local government agencies; facilitating inboundshipments through POEs; and responding directly to inquiries about the import of PPE, COVID19 test kits, ventilators, and other medical supplies. The CCRT coordinates with affected POEs
and government agencies to ensure that legitimate shipments are not unnecessarily delayed. CBP
also created an online portal to triage inquiries and provide up-to-date guidance from CBP andlinks to guidance from other government agencies. To date, the knowledge base has received
more than 21,000 views.
One of the CCRT’s most important partners is the FDA, which has regulatory authority over andexpertise in many medical and PPE products. The CCRT interacts daily with FDA leadershipand staff, sharing data needed to clear inbound shipments, identifying proper product labels andclassification, and ensuring that imported supplies meet U.S. safety standards. The CCRT is alsoable to direct certain inquiries about FDA regulations to FDA’s own response team, which
ensures that importers meet key data requirements and reduces potential shipment delays.
The CCRT is also working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to
facilitate importations of equipment and materials in support of Operation Warp Speed, whichaims to deliver 300 million doses of a safe, effective vaccine for COVID-19 by January 2021 aspart of a broader strategy to accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of
COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics (collectively known as countermeasures). 1

1

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Fact Sheet: Explaining Operation Warp Speed” June 16, 2020,
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/06/16/fact-sheet-explaining-operation-warp-speed.html (July 17, 2020).).

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To date, the CCRT has fielded approximately 2,500 incoming inquiries, which range fromproviding guidance on importing PPE, resolving holds, or expediting import release of medical
supplies, to facilitating donations of PPE to U.S. recipients. The efforts of the CCRT, working
with our interagency and private sector partners, have helped secure the importation of
approximately $1.2 billion in medical supplies for the COVID-19 response.
The Supply Chain Task Force / Project Air Bridge
CBP also worked with FEMA’s Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force on Project Air Bridge,
which significantly sped up the delivery of high-demand medical and PPE supplies fromoverseas manufacturers. Project Air Bridge cut the amount of time it took for American cities toreceive supplies from manufacturers abroad from months to days. CBP worked closely with
FEMA to identify the flights, screen the importers and shipments, alert the relevant arrival
airports, and ensure the cargo was cleared and released as quickly as possible upon arrival into
the United States. The program concluded on July 1, but retains the ability to be reactivated inaccordance with shifting conditions. During the time it operated, CBP successfully cleared 416
Project Air Bridge and other FEMA procurement flights from 14 countries at 17 different U.S.
airports, and facilitated the delivery of 1.3 billion pieces of PPE.
Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism
CBP is also leveraging existing partnerships with industry to facilitate the import of legitimate
medical supplies. The Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) is a voluntary
public-private sector partnership program that was established in 2001. This program allows
member companies to meet rigorous security criteria and vetting standards in return for enhanced
facilitation, including expedited CBP processing.
Today, there are more than 11,600 certified partners who have agreed to work with CBP toprotect the supply chain, identify security gaps, and implement specific security measures andbest practices. CTPAT members account for approximately 54.3 percent (by value) of all U.S.
imports, and the compliance rate of CTPAT members with the program’s overall requirements,
including having to successfully pass a CTPAT validation, is 97.5 percent. Of the members,
more than 3,900 are U.S. importers—that is more than 34 percent of the total membership.
Forty-one of these importers are part of the medical supply chain.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CBP’s CTPAT team worked closely with CTPAT
members from the medical manufacturing and supply industry, ensuring that some of the largest
importers of PPE and medical equipment in the United States were able to expedite clearance of
these critical goods when needed most. This trusted trade partnership is critical to mitigating
supply chain risks, and ensuring that safe, legitimate supplies move quickly into U.S. markets.
Protecting U.S. Medical Supplies
CBP also is supporting FEMA by identifying outbound shipments subject to relevant Executive
Orders regarding the Defense Production Act, working with the relevant exporters and CBP
personnel on the ground to identify and examine the shipments, and providing relevant
information to FEMA for review and adjudication.

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Timely reviews have been a priority in this process. CBP is expediting data sharing, review, andcargo examination as much as possible to ensure FEMA can make decisions quickly. As of July
22, CBP had identified and referred 159 export supply shipments to FEMA. Of those, 142 were
subsequently cleared for export and 16 were cancelled and returned to the U.S. supply chain.
Under this authority, FEMA and CBP have returned 3.6 million protective masks and nearly
150,000 sets of gloves to U.S. markets.
Safeguarding the Medical Supply Chain
As a core component of CBP’s mission, ensuring the safety and legitimacy of imported goods
has become increasingly important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. With imports ofmedical supplies and PPE growing dramatically to meet the U.S. demand, so too did attempts tocircumvent the nation’s trade and customs laws. CBP has seen an increasing number ofpotentially dangerous counterfeit or unauthorized COVID-related products. Since the pandemic
began until the end of June, CBP has seized more than 120,000 unlawful COVID-19 test kits in
339 separate incidents. These items were either refused admission into the U.S. because they did
not meet U.S. regulatory or legal requirements, or they were potentially unlicensed. As of June
30, we have also seized more than 10 million counterfeit face masks in 80 separate incidents;
3,000 EPA-prohibited anti-virus lanyards in 95 incidents; 24,000 FDA-prohibited chloroquineand hydrochloroquine tablets in 148 incidents; and 4,000 tablets of counterfeit or unsafe
antibiotics, such as azithromycin, in 76 incidents.
CBP has also increased targeting for possible counterfeit or infringing merchandise in theinternational mail and express consignment cargo environments. We are leveraging the tradeindustry and other government agency partnerships to gather essential information that is being
used to target and prevent illicit actors from attempting to circumvent import requirements or
take advantage of the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Targeting High-Risk Shipments
CBP coordinates with U.S. industries, 49 agency partners, and foreign governments to detect
anomalies, trends, and violations in the global supply chain, to target high-risk shipments, and topromote compliance. CBP’s National Targeting Center (NTC) uses state-of-the-art technologies
and highly skilled specialists to identify, target, and coordinate examination of high-risk
shipments while permitting legitimate trade to flow unimpeded. The NTC leverages classified,law enforcement, commercial, and open-source data, as well as deep subject-matter expertise, toassess and segment risk at every stage in the supply chain. This enables NTC staff to identify
high-risk shipments at the earliest possible point prior to arrival in the United States. The
analysis and information coming out of the NTC not only helps stop potentially dangerous
inbound shipments, but also provides critical information for longer-term investigations into bad
actors behind those shipments.
To bolster its targeting mission, the NTC collaborates daily with critical partners, including U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal
Inspection Service (USPIS), and members of the intelligence community. ICE-HSI and USPIS
investigative case data are fused with CBP targeting information to bolster investigations
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targeting illicit narcotics smuggling and trafficking organizations. Moreover, the NTC works inclose coordination with several pertinent task forces, including the Organized Crime Drug
Enforcement Task Forces, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, the Joint Interagency Task
Force-West, the DHS Joint Task Force-West, and DHS Joint Task Force–Investigations.
Effective targeting and interdiction prevents inadmissible high-risk passengers, cargo,
agriculture, and bioterrorism threats from reaching U.S. POEs. This extends our border security
initiatives outward, making our borders not the first line of defense, but one of many.
The NTC has established the Integrated Trade Targeting Network (ITTN) as an integrated
operational network among all of CBP’s trade targeting assets to improve communications,coordinate actions, and standardize procedures for more effective trade targeting. In addition to
the ITTN, the NTC also partners with ICE-HSI via the Tactical Trade Targeting Unit to utilize
all available trade data for further research to bolster trade and target questionable operations
related to fraud and trade-based money-laundering investigations.
As part of the ITTN, the Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center (CTAC), also led by CBP,
is composed of multiple, co-located government agencies responsible for targeting andintercepting commercial shipments that pose a threat to the health and safety of Americans.
Twelve federal agencies—including the FDA, EPA, and our colleagues at ICE-HSI—sharetargeting information as part of CTAC, and to prevent, deter, interdict, and investigate violationsof U.S. import and export laws.
Advance Data Collection
Key to these targeting efforts are the data CBP collects. An important element of CBP’s layered
security strategy is obtaining advance information to help identify shipments that pose a higher
risk of containing contraband. Under section 343 of the Trade Act of 2002, as amended, andunder the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act or SAFE Port Act of 2006, CBP has thelegal authority to collect key cargo data elements provided by air, sea, and land commercial
transport companies. This information is automatically fed into the Automated Targeting
System, a secure intranet-based enforcement and decision-support system that compares cargo
and conveyance information against intelligence and other enforcement data.
Safeguarding the E-Commerce Supply Chain
Over the past five years, e-commerce has grown exponentially as consumers make more directpurchases online. These purchases are typically shipped directly to consumers and cross ourborders through multiple modes of transportation. While international mail volumes peaked in2017, mail still accounts for over 80 percent of these shipments. Over the last five years, air,truck, and express consignment shipments have increase by 79 percent. Pre-COVID, CBP
processed approximately 1.9 million shipments per day across all modes, with 91 percent of
those valued at $800 or less. Criminals are attempting to exploit this volume, presenting theUnited States with economic risks in the form of intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement,
as well as safety risks from poor quality and untested consumer products, such as fraudulent or
prohibited COVID-19 products and PPE.

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CBP has taken an active approach to addressing these trends. For example, late last year, CBP
initiated an e-commerce data pilot pertaining to low-value, ‘de minimis’ shipments of $800 or
less. Under this pilot, CBP is receiving certain advance data from e-commerce supply chain
partners, including online marketplaces, to help identify the entity causing the shipment to move,the final recipient, and the contents of the package. The pilot’s participants represent a wide
range of e-commerce supply-chain companies including eBay, FedEx, DHL, and UPS, withothers set to begin sharing data in the near future. Partnerships with e-commerce leaders are
critical for identifying counterfeit and unsafe medical supplies and PPE shipments before theyreach U.S. consumers, as well as stopping those responsible for attempting to circumvent U.S.
safety standards.
Interagency Enforcement Efforts
CBP works extensively with other U.S. federal and foreign government agencies to addresstransnational threats at POEs, international mail facilities, and express consignment facilities.
Joint operations and task forces conducted under the auspices of multi-agency enforcement
teams enhance targeting, detection, and interdiction capabilities. CBP works closely with ICEHSI to conduct Operation Stolen Promise (OSP), targeting the evolving threat posed by COVID19-related fraud and criminal activity. OSP has resulted in an array of investigations, seizures ofillicit products and proceeds, arrests of criminals engaged in fraud, and a number of website
domain seizures.
CBP is also a member of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Consumer Fraud Coordination
Workgroup. This workgroup is investigating COVID-related fraud schemes, many of which
involve the fraudulent import or sale of medical products or PPE. CBP’s data and informationsharing assists DOJ efforts to pursue and shut down criminal actors and networks.
Forced Labor Enforcement
U.S. law prohibits the entry of goods produced in whole or in part with forced labor. 2 In
September 2019, CBP issued a withhold release order (WRO) on a Malaysian manufacturer ofrubber gloves, WRP Asia Pacific Berhad (BHD), based on reasonable suspicion that the gloves
imported into the United States were produced with forced labor and in violation of U.S. law.
Over the next six months, CBP worked with the manufacturer to successfully remediate theforced labor conditions. Based upon information demonstrating the manufacturer’s successful
efforts to remediate those conditions, CBP revoked the WRO on March 24. CBP continues to
examine the medical supply chain for forced labor. On July 15, CBP issued a WRO on two more
Malaysian rubber glove manufacturers, Top Glove BHD and TG Medical BHD, based onreasonable suspicion that their rubber gloves were being produced with forced labor. These
enforcement efforts align with Congress’ mandate that CBP takes action regardless of U.S.
consumptive demand.
Additionally, Federal Acquisition Regulations prohibit federal contractors from engaging in
trafficking in persons, and include a prohibition on the use of forced labor. These regulations
also prohibit federal agencies from acquiring products made with forced or indentured child2

19 U.S.C. § 1307

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labor. These actions send a clear and direct message to the international trade community that theillicit, inhumane, and exploitative practice of forced labor will not be tolerated in U.S. supply
chains.
CBP’s Agency-Wide Response to the Pandemic
CBP continues to prioritize information sharing and communication with not only othergovernment agencies, but industry as well. CBP has created a dedicated website 3 and contact
points for private industry and other government agencies to easily find answers on COVID-19
product admissibility and import guidance, cargo hold and facilitation, classification, and duties.
This information enables new and existing importers to effectively and expediently navigate theimport process during this unprecedented time. Meanwhile, we continue to look for other ways
to assist private-sector stakeholders.
In an Executive Order signed on April 18, the President provided the Secretary of the
Department of the Treasury authority to extend temporarily deadlines on certain payments ofduties and taxes for importers suffering significant financial hardship due to the pandemic. 4 This
important step provided American companies with financial flexibility while ensuring thatrevenue owed to the U.S. government will still be paid.
Conclusion
CBP continues to carry out its mission of facilitating and safeguarding the global supply chain,and has increased its focus on the critical medical supply chain and products needed for thenation’s response. The agency’s targeting, data-collection, interagency partnerships, andcollaboration with trade stakeholders bolster the efforts of the men and women on the frontlinesof CBP’s trade mission. CBP’s dedicated frontline personnel are vigilantly on the lookout for
counterfeit, substandard, and unapproved COVID-19 products like PPE, pharmaceuticals, andtest kits. CBP’s agents, officers, and specialists remain committed to safeguarding our border andfacilitating the flow of legitimate trade. CBP continues to stand guard at U.S. borders to ensure
the safety and health of all Americans.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and I look forward to your questions.

3

Imports.cbp.gov
White House, “Executive Order on National Emergency Authority to Temporarily Extend Deadlines for Certain
Estimated Payments,” April 19, 2020 https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-nationalemergency-authority-temporarily-extend-deadlines-certain-estimated-payments/ (July 15, 2020).
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